Mahjong is a game of Chinese origin commonly played by four persons with tiles resembling dominoes and bearing various symbols and designs. The playing tiles are drawn and discarded from a common pile until one player wins. A full set of mahjong playing tiles commonly contains 144 tiles with each tile having a unique symbol (namely, a wan, a bamboo, a ring, a dragon, or a wind) engraved or painted on its face. Mahjong involves skill, strategy, and calculation, as well as a certain degree of luck (depending on the variation played, luck can be anything from a minor to a dominant factor in winning). Mahjong is also popularly played as a gambling game.
More specifically, and depending on the particular variation of the game, each player is dealt either thirteen or sixteen tiles in a hand. On their turn, players draw utile and discard one tile, with the goal of making four or five sets of threes known as “melds” (depending on the variation) and one pair, or “head.” Winning comes “on the draw” by drawing anew or discarded tile that completes the hand. Thus, a winning hand generally contains fourteen (or seventeen) tiles.
Stated somewhat differently, the objective of the game of mahjong is to put together a complete set (or “hand”), which contains three or four sets of threes or “melds” (either three of a kind of the same suit (or “pung”) or a sequence of the same suit (or “chow”)) and a pair, for total of 14 (or 17) pieces (tiles). Each player starts with 13 (or 16) tiles. With each turn, a player picks up a 14th (or 17th) tile, and then discards one tile placed face up in the center of the table. At this point, other players can choose to pass, take the tile to complete a set (pung, chow, or kong) or to declare a win (“mahjong”). The first player who completes the set of 14 (or 17) tiles wins the hand.
In contrast to traditional mahjong-style playing tiles of Chinese origin, European or western-style playing cards generally consist of pieces of specially prepared heavy paper, thin card, or thin plastic, figured with distinguishing motifs that are suited and numerically ranked. Playing cards are typically palm-sized for convenient handling. A complete set of cards is called a pack or deck, and the set of cards held at one time by a player during a game is commonly called their hand. A deck of cards may be used for playing a great variety of card games, some of which may also incorporate gambling.
The front (or “face”) of each playing card carries markings that distinguish it from the other cards in the deck and determine its use under the rules of the game being played. The back of each card is generally identical for all cards in any particular deck, and usually of a single color or formalized design. For most card games, the cards are assembled into a deck, and their order is randomized by shuffling.
The exact origin of playing cards is subject to a great deal of speculation and misinformation. There are many divided opinions, theories, and contradictions in the historical research of playing cards. Playing cards are thought to have entered Europe via the Islamic world where suit symbols were added in the form of cups and swords in addition to non-figurative images for court cards. In Europe the Islamic non-figurative court cards were replaced with representations of humans at royal courts including kings and queens. Two basic types of playing cards evolved in Europe that are in common use today; namely, the Tarot deck of 22 playing cards that depicts vices and virtues; and the deck of 52 playing cards divided into four suits (spades, hearts, clubs, and diamonds), with each suit consisting of 10 numbered or ranked cards (A, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10), and three face cards (jacks, queens, and kings). European or western-style card decks sometimes include one or two additional bonus or wild cards commonly known as jokers.
The invention in the fourteenth century of “woodcut” printing enabled mass production of playing cards, which, in turn, popularized the use of playing cards throughout Europe. Because the French suit system of spades  hearts (♥), clubs  and diamonds (♦) were easy to stencil using red and black ink, the French colored suit system of black spades, red hearts, black clubs, and red diamonds became dominant and is now the most popular suit system in use today (although other suit systems are known to exist).
Playing cards were first produced in the United States around 1800. Americans adopted and invented several refinements including indexes (sometimes referred to as “pips”—defined as identifying marks placed on the cards' corners or borders). These were adopted to eliminate the problem of identification when fanning out the cards. The backs of cards were originally plain but designs were eventually added to prevent card sharps from recognizing cards with identifying marks or dirt on their backs. Round corners were added to eliminate the problem of wear and tear resulting from square corners.
Although significant advancements with playing tiles and cards have been made over time, there is still a need in the art for new and improved playing cards and tiles, especially playing cards and tiles that provide and allow for the playing of more complicated and/or different types of games. The present invention fulfills these needs and provides for further related advantages.